Ohio proposal to cut illegal immigrant health care could increase state costs, some argue

As part of a series of articles on illegal immigrants in central Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch examines a bill pending in the state legislature to ban government spending on health care for anyone older than 14 who lives illegally in the state (Source: “Free health care comes at a price,” Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 9, 2008).

The law would mean clinics would have to turn away patients without proper documentation. The unintended consequence, according to some health care experts, is that taxpayers and hospitals would end of spending considerably more money on increased emergency room visits for chronic conditions that could have been treated for much less at a clinic.